Preserving a Mayor's Legacy

By Nikita Stewart and Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 10, 2007

The legacy of the District's first elected mayor, the late Walter E. Washington, will live on in perpetuity through 150 boxes of his papers that were donated last year to Howard University.

Washington, who was elected in 1974, graduated from Howard in 1938 and received a law degree a decade later.

Mary Burke Washington, the former mayor's widow, and Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert dedicated the archives at a ceremony yesterday in the Founder's Library on campus. The papers will be maintained by the University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC).

"Howard University is honored to have received the archives of the Honorable Walter E. Washington," Swygert said in a news release. "Students and researchers from generations to come will have the opportunity to glean from significant historical documents of such an extraordinary trailblazer."

Thomas Battle, director of the research center, said Washington's papers, dating from 1915 to 2003, enhance other collections from organizations and individuals, including former mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, Washington power broker Vernon Jordan, the Congressional Black Caucus and others.

Seniors Drive Protest Home

At any given council meeting, you may find lobbyists in designer suits trying to persuade the city's legislators to do things their way. But the high-paid lobbyists have not been among the strongest and most persuasive groups of late.

Instead, the protests have come from the city's senior citizens, who are opposed to the recent enforcement of a 34-year-old law that requires drivers 75 and older to take special medical, written and road tests. The group has spoken out in the chambers of the John A. Wilson Building, in e-mails, phone calls and letters.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) has heard their concerns. He has listened to seniors complain about the unfairness of the law, which states that the seniors "may" be required to take the additional tests. After a review of the law, officials of the Department of Motor Vehicles started enforcing some of the country's strictest driving tests in May 2005. Only New Hampshire and Illinois require road tests for older drivers.

Graham said he doesn't see the need for the additional tests, which he said "pose a real burden for older drivers."

Bowing to pressure, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), along with Graham and Lucinda Babers, acting director of the DMV, planned to announce a temporary administrative change to this policy this week.

Graham said he wants the city to suspend the road and written tests until the council completes its review of the legislation.

"This helps because we had so many seniors complaining," Graham said. "We heard what they were saying."

Without the written tests administered on computers, and the road tests, which require the drivers to use vehicles with center emergency brakes, the District still has the "toughest process for seniors," Graham said.

The city requires a physician's certification, vision and reflex tests.

"Nobody has this much," Graham said. "Even without these two tests, we have a tougher standard. Why should we make it tougher?"

Something to Sing About

Muriel Bowser's campaign workers began gathering for the after-party shortly after 8 p.m. on the evening of last week's special election for the D.C. Council.

The location was the back yard of the home of Darrell Wiggins, Bowser's campaign director, in Northwest Washington. The food was a buffet of chicken and salad and beers. The music was soul and a little R&B. The mood was festive: The more than 60 people in attendance assumed their candidate had won.

About 1 1/2 hours later, they were proved right. Bowser easily defeated the other candidates to serve the remainder of Fenty's term as the Ward 4 representative on the council.

That's when the celebrating began. Wiggins announced the results by leaping onto a lawn chair and throwing his hands in the air.

"Muriel wins!" he shouted, to cheers and applause. "We're going to celebrate," he added. "We're going to have a good time!"

Moments later, Bowser arrived to chants of "Mur-i-el! Mur-i-el!"

But the best was yet to come. Shirleta Settles, a precinct captain for Bowser's campaign, grabbed a microphone from the deejay and started singing a personalized version of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely."

Sample lyric: "Isn't she love-ly? She's so hard wor-king. There's no one bet-ter, Muriel for Ward 4."

Settles said she had been singing the customized piece for the entire campaign as a sort-of theme song. Looks like it worked.

A Tardy Barry Cries Fowl

Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was a little late for a committee meeting Friday. The meeting on tax matters that bore the general public drew a decent crowd of people protesting a cap on tax increases. The protesters complained that the cap would mostly benefit the city's wealthy residents.

Barry, who sympathized with them because Ward 8 is home to most of the city's low-income residents, wasn't present at the start of the meeting to defend them.

Barry explained that his tardiness was due to a stop on Maine Avenue.

No, not the police. Not again.

It wasn't. It was ducks. The former mayor explained:

"Sitting right in the street. Right in the middle of the street. Would not move."

Fellow council members and the crowd laughed.

By the way, Barry was the lone dissenter in the committee on the tax cap.

Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.